DC Animation Director And Producer Talk New 52 Reboot And The Lack Of AQUAMAN In JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR

by Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell

Just like it did in the comics, it seems that Flashpoint is rebooting the DC animated universe as well. Flashpoint Paradox was a big success and following hot off its hills will be Justice League: War, a loose adaptation of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee‘s New 52 story showing the formation of the Justice League. Director Jay Oliva and producer James Tucker recently talked about the New 52 style reboot the animated features will undergo and how they plan to stick to more modern stories when they decide what to adapt next. The animation dynamic duo also touched on the controversial decision to replace Aquaman with Captain MarvelShazam.

Speaking with CBR, Oliva and Tucker explained how FlashpointParadox allowed the animation department to do their own reboot and go along with the New 52 stories for the foreseeable future. Said Tucker:

We did ‘Flashpoint,’ and originally ‘Flashpoint’ was gonna be just a standalone and we were gonna go right back into doing standalone different movies that aren’t in continuity with each other. I think Geoff Johns and our boss, Sam Register, got together and decided, ‘You know, this may be an opportunity to relaunch the DVD franchise and start it from ground zero.’ That’s kind of how it happened.

I think we wanted to pull in more of the general audience now that superhero movies are kind of a genre of their own. There’s much more awareness of these characters in the general public than beyond the comic book reading public and we wanted to take advantage of that. Also, we wanted to be able to tell more stories about what the comics are currently doing, like the modern aspects of the new comics that are not under the Comic Book Code and aren’t from the Bronze Age or the Silver Age. Something that’s contemporary so we can take advantage of some of the edgier topics that are in comics now and reach that audience, and reach a wider general audience.

Aquaman fans have been pretty peeved that the King of the Seas isn’t involved with the formation of the Justice League in the upcoming film. Arthur had a substantial role in Flashpoint Paradox, but he’s being sidelined for the Justice League story. Geoff Johns has tried to appease those very angry and very vocal fans by revealing that the aquatic hero is getting his own movie in the near future, and that seems to have helped calm those people. After talking about how some characters get the spotlight and become focal characters because they’re more well known (Batman and Superman), Tucker and Oliva took the Aquaman question head on:

“The broad answer is that Aquaman will be getting some love in the near future. A little more specific answer is that the writer of the arc [Geoff Johns] made the suggestion to save him for another story,” said Tucker. “Who am I to argue with the guy that wrote the comic book?”

“I just finished up ‘Flashpoint Paradox’ right before this, so for me, not having Aquaman in it was a little bit refreshing because I had done everything I could with Aquaman in that movie,” Oliva said. “So when we went in about this movie and we included some new characters, I just thought, “Okay, that’s great.” Plus, there wasn’t any screen time anyway, because as you mentioned, there’s seven of them — there’s only so much that we could do. So again, in the future we have something cool planned for Aquaman and I think fans will really like it.

You can watch the full video interview below. There’s a lot of great info on the workings of the animated features and what direction things are going in for the next few years. Justice League: War looks very promising, so the New 52 direction could re-energize things like it did with the comics when they originally launched. No details have been released about that Aquaman movie, but I’m sure we’ll be hearing about it around the time War is released this coming February. What do you think about Tucker and Oliva‘s comments?

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I'm a comic book and movie nerd who loves to share news I find interesting and hope you do as well. I'm a big Doctor Who fan and sci-fi in general. My favorite comic characters you ask? Well Thor, Wolverine, and Daredevil.

A bunch of excuses, if this was a Regular JL movie like the countless others they kept Aquaman out of then it would be less of a problem, but to deny his spot as a founder and give it to a character who has less history with the League yet more media showings is despicable. Bravo, I hope this movie bombs..

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